Another lonely Skype Christmas, thanks to the ‘minimum income requirement’?

Meghan Markle might not have to worry about the ‘minimum income requirement’, but if you marry a Brit of more modest means than Prince Harry, you might face years of separation from your partner and family.

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Christmas is coming. Everywhere
you see the signs of a season that is, for most people, a time for family and
loved ones. But for thousands of families across the country, it’s yet another
Christmas spent without fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, husbands and wives,
as Theresa May’s government continues to prevent them from coming home to their
family.

Families & the Law

Since 2012, British
citizens have been required to demonstrate an income of at least £18,600 per
year in order to be joined here by a non-European spouse. The figure rises by
£3,800 if you have a child and by £2,400 for every additional child. Savings of
at least £62,500 may be accepted in lieu of income but these must be in the
form of cash, held for at least six months and must be held by the British
spouse.

Home ownership is not
accepted as a form of savings under any circumstances. Likewise, the income of
a foreign spouse is not considered, even if the spouse carries a firm offer of
employment in the UK. Support from parents or relatives is not recognised.

Unsound Logic, Unfair
Policy

The Tories’ logic for both
the threshold and the restrictions on how you meet it run like
this: earning at least £18,600 per year means that a family will not draw on
public funds for sustenance. Support from relatives and the potential income of
the foreign spouse is not seen as sufficiently reliable. Only a job, held by
the British spouse, can be considered a stable source of income.

On the face of it, it makes
some sense – but it doesn’t stand up to even minimal scrutiny. In fact, spouses
have not had recourse to public funds since long before 2012. A non-European
national living in the UK on a spouse visa cannot claim benefits and, prior to
their application even being reviewed, a £1000 NHS (spread over five years)
surcharge is levied. That’s, in addition to the taxes and national insurance
contributions that will be generated by the clear majority of foreign spouses who
will work in the UK once they arrive.

Even the arbitrary figure
of £18,600 raises more questions than it answers. It does not account for
regional or sectoral disparities in income or the cost of living.

Someone working full-time
at the National Living Wage earns just £15,600 before tax. Salaries for trainee
teachers start at £15,817. Average salaries for NHS attendants and cleaners are
just under £16,000. With incomes stagnating, 41% of working British people do
not (and may never) qualify for the right to live with their family in the UK.
This figure will no doubt rise as the Tories seek to increase the thresholds
while holding down public sector pay.

These financial disparities
are compounded by gender and age. In most professions, women are still paid
less than men and are therefore less likely to meet Theresa May’s requirements.
In families that cannot afford childcare, women are more likely than men to
take unpaid time off or leave work altogether to raise children, potentially
rendering a family unable to stay together in the UK, while retired people on
fixed incomes (most pensions are far below £18,600 per year) cannot easily
return to work.

Forcing Families Apart

“Well”, says the Home
Office, “you are free to live together wherever your spouse comes from”. Sounds
like common sense? Here’s the thing: for many people, this just isn’t an
option. Many have elderly parents to look after. Many have children whose
schooling and lives cannot easily be uprooted. Many have specialist health
needs that can only be met in the UK. Many of those in same-sex relationships
cannot return to countries that criminalise homosexuality. Most have family
here and all have roots that run deeper than paperwork.

A Tory government which
prides itself on its patriotic credentials has no place asking honest,
hardworking, law-abiding citizens to leave the country they love and call home.

A broken system

And even once a family
meets the requirements, it must run the gauntlet of a complex application with
convoluted evidence requirements that often cannot be navigated without the use
of expensive legal assistance on top of an already expensive (£1464 for a
single applicant) application. Once an application is submitted, families often
wait months or even years before they receive a full response from the Home
Office, with growing delays leaving families in limbo.

Decisions themselves are
too often incorrect, made hastily or without an Entry Clearance Officer having
properly looked at an applicant’s papers. Irreplaceable documents such as
marriage certificates and passports are frequently lost. Fees are not refunded
and the burden of dealing with these administrative errors falls on the
applicant who typically has no choice but to submit an appeal, with waiting
times of a year or more before a hearing, during which time they are often
unable to even visit the UK. Most do not have the resources for a lawyer or the
know-how to mount an appeal on their own. Legal aid for such cases was ended in
2013.

People, not Numbers

So another Christmas,
another year passes for families who simply want to be together. For too many
people this story is all too familiar. They are fathers who watch their
children grow up on Skype. Mothers forced to raise their family alone.
Grandparents who never get to see their grandchildren. Husbands and wives who
forget the feeling of holding hands and talking about the future. Futures that
are paused, abruptly and deliberately by a government that took away their
rights and didn’t even see fit to do its own job properly. It’s time this ended.
It’s time to bring them home.

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